Friday, May 29, 2009

Oll Lewis has a fascinating new article over at the main CFZ blog (click here for the full article), which includes an interesting section on Welsh cryptids.

Here's the relevant extract from Oll's article:

"Afanc are crocodile like lake monsters that have been seen in bodies of water all over Wales since at least the end of the Roman Empire and were probably seen even longer ago than that.

"It’s not just Wales where they are seen either, a large number of escaped crocodile reports that make their way into British newspapers when there are not enough stories about former reality TV stars going for a drink (in an actual pub, where people drink (!)) to clog up the real news from getting through are probably not sightings of crocodiles but of Afanc.

"Afanc have suffered from an identity crisis though: they are not some hitherto undiscovered indigenous British species of crocodile, surviving dinosaurs, aquatic dwarfs, beavers or whatever the hell that big brown thing was that they called an afanc recently in the otherwise brilliant BBC adventure drama Merlin.

"Afanc are giant pike, not just pike that have grown a bit bigger than normal, really huge pike.One place I’ve studied is Langorse Lake near Brecon in Wales. Langorse has had legends told about the afanc there since the dark ages at least and the creatures were so well known in the lake it even had poems written about it by Lewis Glyn Cothi in the 15th century.

"Tales of large pike have persisted in the area into the modern day from a close encounter with a massive fish by Mike Tunnicliffe in the 1980s to a water-skier being hospitalised after he was attacked by a giant pike in the 1990s.

"The heaviest pike ever caught on a rod and line in Britain was caught there by O. Owens in 1846, the pike weighed 68lbs, remarkable considering the upper size limit for pike in the UK is meant to be around 47lbs.

"An even bigger pike was found washed up dead along the shore of the lake a few years ago. Only the skull, or mask remained and that measured 18 inches in length, the estimated weight of the pike is roughly around 90lbs and it could have been anywhere between 6-10ft long. A real monster if ever there was one."

I Was Rugby-tackled by a Yowie, Man ClaimsThe Australian. Well-known Australian cryptozoologist Tim the Yowie Man, "who uses no surname and can be almost as elusive as his quarry," has been on the hunt during recent rainy weather in southeast Queensland. Another Yowie tracker, Dean Harrison of Australian Yowie Research, has also been in the area and makes the claim of physical contact with one of the legendary creatures.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Good mate and fellow Fortean Nigel Wright says of the British Bigfoot:

"...these mysterious creatures, if they exist, in the physical sense, may just go on to prove a long-held theory of mine. That there might exist a form of 'window' or 'vortex' in inter-dimensional space, through which these and other types of paranormal objects materialize. I consider the possibility of these creatures being able to have existed in our UK countryside, undiscovered for thousands of years, as being totally preposterous! So, the only other explanation possible is that they 'come' from another place, or time."

Actually, it's a little more down to earth than you might think: ABC's Wife Swap show is looking for people who (a) are interested in Bigfoot; and (b) have kids, to take part in the next season of their show.

So, if you have a passion for Bigfoot and want to swap for a few days - here's your big chance!

And here's all the info you'll need to find out more:

ABC’s WIFE SWAP CASTING BIG FOOT ENTHUSIASTS FOR PRIMETIME

ABC’s primetime series Wife Swap is currently casting its fifth season and looking for unique families with plenty of personality to take part in the show. Specifically, we're looking for dynamic families who strongly believe in the existence of Bigfoot and have had (non-violent!) sightings themselves or are actively seeking proof of some kind.

Families who participate in this documentary-style program are given a unique opportunity to share their beliefs and lifestyles with another family. It is truly a once in a lifetime experience that can be life-changing for everyone. If after reading this email, you'd like to learn more, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Each week on Wife Swap, the mothers from two families with different values and belief systems will exchange lives. It’s an amazing family experience and opportunity to learn how others lead their lives. Half of the week, mom lives the life of the family she is staying with.

After making her observations, she introduces several "rule changes," where she implements rules and activities that are important to her family. It's a positive experience for people to not only learn but teach about other families and other ways of life.

Wife Swap airs on Disney owned ABC television on Fridays at 8 pm- the family hour!

If you are a two-parent family with at least one child over the age of 5 living at home, and you think your family would make terrific TV, contact us to be a part of this groundbreaking show!

One of the things that particularly fascinates me about cryptozoology, is the way in which certain places seem to attract more than one type of unknown beast - the Cannock Chase woods of central England being a classic example.

Another example - and a very little-known one - was brought to my attention a few years ago by a woman named Eileen Gallagher.

She telephoned me early one week-day morning to relate how a friend of hers – named Janice - had undergone some sort of very traumatic encounter late at night with a man-beast in the village of ChildsErcall – which can be found in the northern part of the English county of Shropshire.

Gallagher had lost touch with Janice in the late 1970s; however, she still well-recalled the salient facts.

So the story went, it was back in 1971 and Janice was fifteen at the time and living in a nearby village.

After an evening spent with her then-boyfriend at the home of his parents in ChildsErcall, Janice was happily riding her pedal-bike back home when she was shocked to see a large, hairy animal dash across the road directly in front of her, while simultaneously glaring at her in a menacing fashion as it did so.

Eileen Gallagher recalled that Janice had told her that the animal was human-like in shape, was covered in long flowing dark hair, possessed a pair of bright yellow eyes that "twinkled," and had a black-skinned and "shiny" face.

I have to say that this particular story completely fascinated me, for one specific reason: the Bigfoot-style entity seen by Janice in the Shropshire village of ChildsErcall was not the only weird creature said to inhabit this otherwise utterly normal and pleasant little English village.

Indeed, legend has it that centuries ago a deadly mermaid was said to inhabit a pool there. In 1893, the writer Robert Charles Hope described the story as follows:

"…there was a mermaid seen there once. It was a good while ago, before my time. I dare say it might be a hundred years ago. There were two men going to work early one morning, and they had got as far as the side of the pond in [a] field, and they saw something on the top of the water which scared them not a little. They thought it was going to take them straight off to the Old Lad himself!

"I can’t say exactly what it was like, I wasn’t there, you know; but it was a mermaid, the same as you read of in the papers. The fellows had almost run away at first, they were so frightened, but as soon as the mermaid had spoken to them, they thought no more of that. Her voice was so sweet and pleasant, that they fell in love with her there and then, both of them. Well, she told them there was a treasure hidden at the bottom of the pond - lumps of gold, and no one knows what. And she would give them as much as ever they liked if they would come to her in the water and take it out of her hands.

"So they went in, though it was almost up to their chins, and she dived into the water and brought up a lump of gold almost as big as a man s head. And the men were just going to take it, when one of them said: 'Eh!' he said (and swore, you know), 'if this isn't a bit of luck!' And, my word, if the mermaid didn’t take it away from them again, and gave a scream, and dived down into the pond, and they saw no more of her, and got none of her gold. And nobody has ever seen her since then.

"No doubt the story once ran that the oath which scared the uncanny creature involved the mention of the Holy Name."

Is it only a chance coincidence that the Shropshire village of ChildsErcall was said to be equally haunted by a hairy man-beast and a bizarre water-based entity? Probably not: in my view, it only reinforces the notion that many crypto-critters are far more (or, perhaps, less) than mere flesh-and-blood in origin...

Well, yet again there is high-strangeness afoot in the woods of Britain's Cannock Chase - and specifically in the vicinity of its German Cemetery.

As regular readers will know, the cemetery in question has been a veritable hotbed of weirdness for years: Bigfoot, werewolves, hairy-sprites, ghosts, marauding black-cats, and spectral black-dogs have all been seen roaming amongst the old war-graves.

But, now there's a new player in town: a giant snake that has been seen slithering around the area. As the story shows, this is not the first time that similar beasts have been seen on the Chase (I investigated a case myself a number of years ago that reportedly occurred in the blisteringly hot-summer of 1976).

So, what are people seeing? Are they regular snakes or something else? From the descriptions, they could perhaps be pythons. However, the problem is that such creatures would not last long when the cold, harsh winter sets in. And yet such creatures have been seen for years on the Chase, which begs the questions: if they are regular snakes, how are they surviving those aforementioned harsh winters year-after-year? And why are the snakes (like all of the other odd beasts seen on the Chase) now homing in on the German Cemetery?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Hello All:Please join your hosts Bob Coyne and Mike Killen as we welcome researcher/investigator Chris Bartow of the North East Sasquatch Researchers Association to the show to talk about the most recent expedition in the Adirondack Park of upstate NY this past weekend. Chris also had his own "not sure" possible encounter in this region back in 2003. If you can, please join us in our live show chat. It's always a lot of fun and we love to interact live with our listeners.Where: www.blogtalkradio.com/Bigfoot_Quest

Monday, May 4, 2009

This just in from good friend Paul Kimball - of Halifax, Nova Scotia - regarding a new TV show that I'll be working on (with Paul, Greg Bishop and Mac Tonnies) and which will be covering a wealth of Fortean issues, including cryptozoology:

"A couple of years ago I developed a paranormal talk show for television. I shelved it when other projects took off, but I never forgot about it. A little while ago, I dusted it off, and it will be headed into production in November. Joining me on the panel for all thirteen episodes will be my good friends, all card-carrying members of the paranormal Rat Pack, Mac Tonnies, Greg Bishop and Nick Redfern. We'll be discussing a wide range of paranormal topics, from UFOs to bigfoot, ghosts to remote viewing, and so forth. Each episode will be one hour in length. Redstar is co-producing the series with my friend Chuck Calder and 45 North here in Halifax. More details will be available as the summer and fall progress, but here's another one I can provide now: the title, The Other Side of Truth. Naturally! Paul Kimball."

Like Paul, I'll keep you updated on what should turn out to be a very cool series.

As some of you know, I do a regular, weekly column for Mania.com titled Lair of the Beasts. Up until now, the articles could only be found at the site by doing individual searches for them. However, you can now find them all archived in one particular sectionof the site (here's the link); which, so far, amounts to 27 articles.

As The Real Men in Black demonstrates, Mothman, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, and perhaps even the legendary "Thunderbird Photograph" have attracted the attention of the MIB.

And, in a real scoop, I detail in my book the very creepy MIB encounter of legendary cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman himself...

THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WOODS: A Transatlantic Hunt for Monsters and the Mysterious

Contains the latest news on Bigfoot, Werewolves, The Thunderbird, Devil-Dogs, Big-Cats, and much more. For all the details, including purchase-information, click on the book-cover image above, or check out: http://www.anomalistbooks.com/redfern2.html

MONSTERS OF TEXAS

NOW AVAILABLE (Click on the book-cover for more information)

MAN-MONKEY: In Search Of The British Bigfoot

"This book is an important contribution to the annals of furry, upright creature lore and belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in unidentified animals," Linda Godfrey, author of "The Beast of Bray Road" and "Hunting the American Werewolf."

MEMOIRS OF A MONSTER HUNTER: A Five-Year Journey In Search Of The Unknown

"This is one of the best books I've read in years," Joshua P. Warren, author of "Pet Ghosts" and "How to Hunt Ghosts."

CONFESSIONS OF A MONSTER HUNTER

I am the author of many books, including "A Covert Agenda;" "The FBI Files;" "Cosmic Crashes;" "Strange Secrets (with Andy Roberts);" "Three Men Seeking Monsters;" "Body Snatchers in the Desert;" "On the Trail of the Saucer Spies;" "Celebrity Secrets;" "Man-Monkey;" "Memoirs of a Monster Hunter;" "There's Something in the Woods;" "Science Fiction Secrets;" "Contactees;" "Monsters of Texas" (with Ken Gerhard); "Final Events;" "The NASA Conspiracies;" "Space Girl Dead on Spaghetti Junction;" "The Real Men in Black" and "Keep Out!"
Proudest achievement: knowing all the lyrics to every one of the songs recorded by The Macc Lads.
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